Chapter 6 - Fair and Open Competition in IT Procurement

6.4 Aggregating or disaggregating IT procurements

Aggregating or disaggregating IT procurements can provide benefits and maximize competition in a number of different ways. Aggregation of business requirements occurs when multiple public bodies combine their individual requirements to procure common goods and services to achieve increased buying power and value.

Aggregation benefits

Aggregation disadvantages

Enable suppliers to be more efficient.

Increases difficulty for smaller specialist suppliers who only have the required expertise for part of the aggregated contract.

Increase the number of bidders.

Removes the ability of the Commonwealth to benchmark the performance of different suppliers providing similar services.

Attract different types of suppliers.

Creates incumbency advantages.

Results in an over-dependency on a limited number of suppliers in the longer term.

Disaggregating IT procurements can benefit smaller or specialist suppliers by allowing them to participate in only a portion of the solicitation when they might not otherwise be able to compete. Disaggregation can be used to motivate suppliers into participating in future solicitation opportunities by linking their past or current contractual performance to opportunities for future awards.

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